Bochum

A few days in Germany - in the delightfully dull City of Bochum.

Here is the view from my hotel room (photo stitched together from sketchy Blackberry photos)

Click to enlarge.

The ongoing search for Good Steak took me to 'Steakhaus El Toro' - who's Argentinian steaks didn't disappoint.

(despite the seats being covered in hairy cow hides)

Ameritard

You will notice that I tend not to post about being away from home until I come back. At least you may have done.

The week before last I had been been over to the USA, first in New York and then Chicago. In each case accompanied by the project manager from The Customer.

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Reykjavik again

I find myself in Iceland again - arriving at the same late hour as last time, except this time it's properly dark. This is a dumb excuse to try writing an entry for my site using my 'phone. So far it seems to work.

The Flybus, as it's called, is a smelly old bus that should eventually take me to my hotel, I costs 1300ISK, which at today's rate is just a bit more than a tenner, slightly cheaper than my thirty-five quid return ticket between Gatwick and Heathrow this afternoon.

The ride out of Keflavik, which was originally a US airbase, is quite smooth, ape far we still have the lights of the airport around us, the smelly coach isn't that full, most people on the flight seemed to be locals, so I would guess that they mostly have better ways home.

Toyota, Subway... Familiar names shine-out from the left, while to our right is nothing but a thousand miles of darkness. I don't think I'm exaggerating.

Here they drive on the right. Not that it matters, the road is empty.

And now it's dark to our left as well. The darkness of another few thousand miles, this time over water. Could be worse, they could have put a drive-through McDonald's out here.

...

I forgot to mention, but, you know how when you land at an airport and it smells funny, like Edinburgh airport always smells of cow poo? Well, landing here, it smells slightly of rotten fish. Which is nice. Don't worry, you seem to get used to it very quickly. I wonder if that smell is 'real' in any meaningful sense?

...

The coach is warm. Too warm. I know that it's only about 1 degree c out there, but this seems to be over-compensating a little.

All of this road is lit with sodium street lights. I guess it would be a dangerous road, but it seems silly somehow. I can't help but think of all the unlit motorway in the UK. The light of the street lights illuminates just a little of the landscape to either side.

Oooo! Proper lights. Are we nearly there yet?

First drop-off. Two guys that have clearly left a car somewhere odd. Just noticed, although the roads are clear and dry, there is a bunch of snow by the roadside. The odd monochrome light makes it kinda hard to see what's what.

Nesti, KFC, N1, Snogg.

Hotel can't be far now.

Red roadside sign says minus three degrees. Chilly.

Reykjavik

It's been a long while since I've had a chance to sit down and

write anything. I have spend a few weeks working in Bracknell and this week I have been in Iceland.

This terrible URL (to be fixed) http://tinyurl.com/34dlop will take you to an annotated Google map (with extra bits to be added) that shows the highlights of my visit.

Places that I ate :

• Silfur http://www.silfur.is/ has a more 'fusion' menu than their site suggests. Their signature chocolate dessert and anything that has Wassabi ice-cream is a good pick.
• Hereford Steakhouse http://www.hereford.is/ is a generic steakhouse, not quite good enough to feature on my 'all time' best steak list but perfectly alright. Their fish soup starter was good, but the tentacles lurking at the bottom were a little off-putting (despite being very nice).
• Salt
• ...more to follow.

As I'm writing this I realise that I am starting to think in the idiot English that I have found myself speaking all week - despite the fact that most of Iceland seems to speak better English than most of England. Go figure.

p.s. Sorry about the mis-spelling of Reykjavik, I've had character set issues with the RSS feeds and this was the easiest thing to 'fix'.

Amsterdam

Last week I took a daytrip to run a Web Analytics course for an organization based near Amsterdam. While not strictly a day trip, as I travelled the afternoon before, it all felt rather rushed.

Problem number one (did you really think that this wouldn't be an endless whinge about everything?). Reasonable looking taxi from the airport that charged WAY too much to get me to my hotel - I didn't really feel like telling the thug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:007Jaws.jpg ) (no, really, he had a mouth full of shiny steel that I don't think any orthodontist had anything to do with)

Anyhow, the freaky taxi dude dropped me off at the hotel (Green Park Hotel) at about six or seven pm. I present myself at reception where the very nice lady tells me that they don't have any rooms. Now, please bear in mind that I had a reservation and that it had been placed for a couple of weeks and that it was guaranteed for late arrival.

No room at the inn.

So, the lady in the hotel says she has made another reservation for me at their sister hotel which is only about twenty minutes away. Fine. Whatever. Just get me a taxi.

(I think we're up to problem number three or four here, but who's counting?)

(taxi journey uneventful)

Hotel #2. (The Grand Winston Hotel) (I won't link to them, they don't need it)

This looks like it's a much nicer hotel than the first one. They don't actually have any record of me, but that soon gets sorted. Classy. Inexplicibilly they have a thirty foot high picture of Winston Churchill looming over reception.

Food is okay - although the nice restaurant isn't open on Sunday or Monday nights.

At last I get to bed.

The bed from hell.

Why is it so hard?... perhaps it's upside down..... no... just as hard the other side.... perhaps it's me.... it will get better.... but it's so hard..... my hip hurts...... I think I'm getting pressure sores....... is the floor any more soft?...... no, but it's only a little bit harder than the bed...... I can't sleep... I can't sleep...... I need to sleep.... perhaps I'll have a glass of water and then it will be better ........ ... ... can I call reception and demand a better bed? ..... perhaps if I lay on one half of my sheet/blanket it will make it better.... yes - a bit.....

So somewhere at about 4 or 5 AM I get to sleep.

Next morning, when I check-out I ask that if I had paid more (it was still the original room rate from the first hotel) would I have had a nicer bed? No, I am told, it's our most frequent complaint.

So, despite people telling you that your beds are too hard you don't do anything about it?

Morons.

The rest of the day passes without event.

The Queens hotel - Leeds

The Queens hotel in Leeds is quite lovely, although it would be greatly improved if they had some way of figuring out that I've given the same details at check-in a million times before.

There is good internet access (a wireless device that plugs into a normal network socket). They currently give out cards that get you two hours free access, but ask for a card at reception as you check-in, thus saving the hassle of having to go back down to reception in your pyjamas.

Rooms facing the square are nice - the windows don't open, but the air con is okay - although it escapes me why it should be necessary to have it on in January.

http://www.qhotels.co.uk/hotels/leeds/the_queens/